Readers' comments

In Canada the provinces like to rant about the federal government meddling into their affairs (especially Quebec), but when in comes to federal money, they want to be first in line to get these handouts. That,s what I call a double standard.

just a comment on bailing out the Auto Industry. When one chooses to buy a vehicle manufactured outside of North America it will have repercussions that we normally don't think about. Dealerships may fold, mechanics, parts and sales persons may lose their jobs. Suppliers lose business, plant employees lose jobs... its obviously a large ripple.Ah but you might say "what concern is that of mine." Well, just remember that when an offshore product or service threatens your livelihood.I'm all for open markets and competition, but its not like it won't cost us anything if north american auto manufactures go under. There will be economic and social costs from the loss of jobs, retraining and EI claims. Taxpayers are going to pay one way or another.Conventional economic dogma would dictate survival of the fittest. This is fine if the market place is level, however, lets not kid ourselves foreign governments are keenly interested in their own domestic auto manufacturers survival. I guess my point is that if the US and Canadian domestic car makers go bust, we need a plan to help those that it affects

Canada is lucky to have a well managed economy, headed by a responsible party, an intelligent leader and a solid banking system. Thank goodness we do not have one of the other left-wing parties (all the other parties are left of center) at this time in our history. The previous government leader did nothing, said nothing and simply threw up his hands when presented with a difficult situation.
John

Notwithstanding Steven Harper's having 2 degrees in Economics, don't confuse sound financial policy with politics. After all, Harper, despite all economic expert advice to the contrary, lowered the much reviled GST rate (from 7% to 5%) rather than lower income taxes.

We will see other loopy ideas during this world economic storm. Witness British Columbia's Premier, Gordon Campbell, freezing property assessments (the basis by which individual municipal property taxes are calculated). The overall municipal tax levy remains the same (or probably even higher). All this measure does is benefit the fortunate (and rare) people whose property values have actually increased, by being levied an otherwise lower municipal tax bill, at the expense of the those (the majority) whose property values have stayed the same or decreased, by being levied an otherwise higher municipal tax bill.

The conservatives were lucky the Liberals had to compete against so many left leading parties and did not have a clear message for voters. In Canada it is usually a liberal or NDP government that shows the best management of the economy and government budgets. In the last thirty years Conservatives in very province have produced deficits by not treating public finances as pay as you go. Like the Republicans down south, the Conservatives do the opposite of what they say.

The issue is not bailout or no bailout. The issue revolves around the question: Are our trading partners intentionally or otherwise creating an un-level playing field with their bailouts, and should we respond.
BTW: the word/phrase 'bail out' may have been appropriate for the original 700b package proposing to soak up bad assets, but seems to be getting stretched fairly thin. What is the nautical term for throwing good money after bad?

If Stepan Harper hasn't squandered billions of Canadian dollars in such a short time, Canada should be in much better shape. Now that he's got a second term, sure enough he's going to throw Canada into a deficit. Has he reacted proactively to curb an economic slowdown, the government should be in a strong position to keep Canada out of hot waters.As for bailing out the auto industry, give me a break. Who's going to bail out my RRSP account because my financial advisor hasn't done a good job? If consumers are not buying, why should taxpayers pay the bill? We have an excellent home-made electric car called ZENN, but provincial governments refuse to let it run on the road. I'd like to see more support given to the improvement of this zero-emission-no-noise (ZENN) car and develop a real Canadian green energy car industry.

One problem is that, like almost everywhere else, the Canadian government has lots of useless money holes that it refuses to axe. One example is the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission (like the FCC), which simply issues regulations that do not help anyone. Another is the Heritage Ministry, which is in charge of culture for some reason.Bailing out the auto industry is silly--like many such industries, demand should bail it out. If there is no demand, there is no point in a bail out. Vincent Poirier may be right that in a CRISIS there should be deficit spending, but Canada is not in crisis. Its people have food, its babies are not freezing to death and not all businesses are in turmoil. Deficit spending at this point would be almost as irresponsible as it was before Jean Chretien and Paul Martin balanced the books.

No fan of "President" Harper, I nevertheless welcome his willingness to accept a budget deficit, and I am mighty glad the initiative is coming from a Conservative rather than a New Democrat. The best case for spending during a crisis was made by Mr. Pierre Berton in his 1990 book "The Great Depression".

Prime ministers Richard Bennet (Conservative) and William Lyon Mackenzie King (Liberal) were obsessed protecting the dollar and the government's credit rating and were unwilling to risk these to help starving families in the province of Saskatchewan or freezing babies in the province of Qu�bec. Canada never even considered a New Deal of the type Franklin Roosevelt gave the United States and Canadians suffered more in the Depression than did our neighbours to the south.